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Press release: DFS Lab Announces Open Applications for Fintech Hackathon Focused on the Mojaloop Software
Mojaloop was created by the Gates Foundation's Level One Project, which is aimed at leveling the economic playing field by crowding in expertise and resources to build inclusive payment models to benefit the world's poor.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A Microfinance Pioneer Branches Out: Early Learnings from FINCA’s Experiences as an Impact Investor
Some three decades after launching its work in microfinance, FINCA International has gotten into impact investing. Hoping to better understand emerging innovations and their impact on its customers and operations, FINCA Ventures has invested in six social enterprises operating in sub-Saharan Africa. Ami Dalal, the initiative's managing director, discusses the lessons it has learned so far, and how these investments improve FINCA's business strategy while furthering its mission.
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Electricity is Just the Beginning: Why Off-Grid Solar Opens the Door to Value-Added Services
Lack of energy access is a much-discussed issue in rural households and businesses across the developing world. But according to Mansoor Hamayun, CEO of BBOXX, electricity is just the beginning: Solar home systems could lay the foundation for a host of related services that could transform the quality of life in off-grid communities. Hamayun discusses “Tomorrow’s Rural Home,” BBOXX’s vision for the off-grid home of the future, which shows how solar energy access could create new markets and power economic growth in Africa and beyond.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Why the Social Impact Sector Needs a ‘Bizarro Davos’: A Modest Proposal That Nobody Will Like
It’s that time of year again: Time to talk about the true meaning of Davos. But among all the hot takes and well-earned snark at the expense of insufferable elites, it’s worth asking if the rest of us are so different. Even those of us who work in the social impact sector don’t seem to object to high-brow conferences, and few regular folks seem willing to make the kinds of sacrifices that may be necessary to tackle the generational challenges we face. NextBillion editor James Militzer discusses this dynamic, and makes a sure-to-be-unpopular proposal.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
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Microcredit was a hugely hyped solution to global poverty. What happened?
Studies have shown it hasn’t really lifted people out of poverty. But it’s still made a difference in the lives of the poor.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: Credit Suisse joins with CGAP on the application of digital finance to alleviate poverty
Credit Suisse, one of the world's leading financial services providers, is partnering with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) to support its work in building inclusive and responsible financial systems that help people move out of poverty, protect their economic gains and advance the broader global development agenda.
- Categories
- Finance
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The New Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Because of this overall reduction in extreme poverty, the conversation about the bottom of the pyramid has shifted from how to alleviate poverty to how to address deep inequality — and not just in developing countries. A comparison of the world economic pyramid from my father’s original paper with 2017’s numbers tells an interesting story.
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Power Problem in a Changing Climate: The Renewable Energy Movement is Shortchanging Women and the Poor
What happens when a movement that aims to correct a global power imbalance develops an imbalance of its own? That’s the question facing renewable energy, says Solar Sister co-founder Neha Misra – a sector dominated by “largely white, often male, founder companies with Western expatriate leadership,” in which organizations with a social focus are sidelined by investors seeking quick profits. Misra discusses these and other uncomfortable truths – and why the movement must address them.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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